24 February 2004
U.S.-Trained Afghan Army and Police Assuming Greater Responsibility
Ten thousand ANA troops will be trained in time for June elections
By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Afghans are assuming increased responsibility for the security of their country as security experts from the United States and Europe provide training to Afghan Police and Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel. At the same time, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense is rebuilding the military's physical infrastructure.
According to a State Department official speaking on background, the United States has agreed to train 50,000 police by 2005, and is set to complete its goal of having a central corps of 10,000 ANA troops "completely stood up and equipped" in time to provide security in and around Kabul for the planned June 2004 elections.
In a February 19 interview with the Washington File, the official said trained ANA battalions have already been deployed in areas needing an added military presence, but for the most part, were not yet engaged in combat operations. "[T]hey have confiscated weapons caches, they have dismantled roadblocks, [and] assisted governors to solve problems, mostly by show of force," he said.
However, he added that in summer 2003, some ANA battalions participated in combat operations as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and said, "their showing has been good from all reports."
The official said the overall U.S. training project for the ANA has three distinct phases.
In the first phase, a 10,000-troop central corps has been trained while Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense has begun a restructuring and reform process aimed at establishing a headquarters that will meet the needs of the growing army's tactical training doctrine and procedures.
Phase two will take the rebuilding process beyond the capital as training will begin at four regional command centers, specializing in logistics and maintenance, communications, and intelligence.
The third phase, due to begin in 2007, will complete the job of setting up the regional commands and finalize the restructuring measures within the Ministry of Defense.
"[W]e are rebuilding or at least refurbishing military compounds, which tend to take 9-10 months of construction work, and so we have to develop the training plan to stay in sync with the construction for the military infrastructure," he said.
As to the final size of the ANA, the official said Afghan leaders would decide upon a force "that is sustainable and supportable" by the country, perhaps numbering between 40,000 and 70,000 troops.
The army training is a cooperative international effort, with France training the ANA officers, the United Kingdom training non-commissioned officers (NCOs), and the United States overseeing basic training for the enlisted personnel.
The official said Afghan troops themselves had now reached the capability to perform basic training. "Across the board, the concept is to train trainers as we move forward ... so that all training, all institutions, all headquarters are staffed and functioned [with Afghan personnel]," he said.
Besides providing national security, the ANA is also helping to integrate the country's ethnic groups by creating what the official called a "nationally representative, ethnically balanced" army.
Rather than try to "match percentages with percentages" so that each individual company has a certain quota of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and other groups, the ANA has tried to "recruit from across the entire nation and ensure that a representative of each area of Afghanistan and ethnic elements in Afghanistan are in every battalion," he said.
The professionalism of the ANA, only two years after the national army's rebirth, has greatly impressed fellow Afghans in the areas where its battalions have been deployed, even leading some to initially mistake them for foreign troops.
"We've had very good comments every place the ANA has deployed," said the official. "[E]very area that they have been we have really been told by local residents that they are welcome, they are professional, [and] that their appearance is different from other military organizations."
For the soldiers themselves, earning a steady salary is a tremendous benefit in post-conflict Afghanistan. Unlike many eighteen-year-old military recruits in western armies, most of the Afghan troops are already married and have family responsibilities. Many come from rural farming communities, or were former militia members, and had no reliable source of income to depend upon.
In the ANA, "they have a predictable form of income that they can determine is sufficient for their support of their families," said the official.
The United States is also working with Germany to help train 50,000 Afghan policemen by 2005, including 12,000 border police and 2600 highway patrolmen.
The State Department official said most policemen serving in post-conflict Afghanistan are either older veterans, former militia conscripts who at one time held police duties, or armed individuals who assumed law enforcement duties. He said the training, taking place at the academy in Kabul and two regional police training centers in Gardez and Mazar-e Sharif, "provides a degree of professionalism to the police."
"Obviously, one group has some training, but the others have little training. They are performing a police function, but they have very little training in how to do that," he said. For example, the police can react to a crime, but have not had training in how to conduct investigative or forensics work at the crime scene.
Those policemen with little or no training will complete an eight-week program, while veterans can take two-week refresher courses.
The U.S. government is also funding the construction of regional training facilities in Kunduz and Kandahar that will open shortly, and plans to create training centers in Bamian and Herat further in the future, he said.
With poppy production and narcotics posing a serious threat to the country's stability, the official said the police will receive training in how to recognize and handle drugs, and border police will receive specific training on counter-narcotics operations, such as drug interdiction.
During 2003, the United Kingdom set up and trained a drug interdiction force that is conducting operations such as intercepting trucks laden with drugs. The United States is assisting that force by developing intelligence procedures for counter-narcotics, he said, and plans are under way to set up an eradication unit as well.
However, the major task right now, he said, is to enhance the Afghan government's ability to control the countryside by building law enforcement infrastructures, such as detention facilities and courthouses, and by providing training for judges and prosecutors.
"It's very hard to conduct a counter-narcotics program when you have no rule of law to facilitate the end result of that program," he said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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